


NihonGo!

by soonyoung (kyofushis)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 09:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3890644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyofushis/pseuds/soonyoung
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kwon Soonyoung and Da Yiseul have an ongoing rivalry with eight years of history - but they don’t realize the extent it goes for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The End is Only The Beginning

> _Let’s face it. We all knew it was coming. Everyone saw it coming - even people who don’t even watch it saw it coming. After dozens of theories later, Eiji finally chooses who his heart belongs to - no, not Natsuko. No, not Hiromi. But Kasumi. Kasumi, the girl who sacrificed her everything for him; Kasumi, the girl that gave up her life for him. Kasumi, the girl he promises to find again in her next life._
> 
> _In this review, I’ve brought to you my most difficult review yet - the review of the final episode for my favorite anime of all time - Balcony Rein. As I stated earlier on, it’s been a pleasure watching this with you guys to be able to share and experiences all the ups and downs of this three-year running series. I think this was an amazing way to celebrate my fifth year running Animechanics as well as my 1000th anime review! I couldn’t think of any way better. I hope that you guys will stick around with me for the next thousand reviews as well. Thank you all so much!_
> 
> _Signing off,_
> 
> **_Kia Kuchiki_ **

A chorus of cracks followed one right after the other as the bespectacled girl stretched her arms above her head - ah, what a good way to end the day. Sliding her hands underneath her black frames, she covered her face with her hands, letting out an exhausted sigh. Being popular was hard - especially when you’re catering to a worldwide audience. She stood up from the tattered seat of the PC row, grabbed her textbooks and headed towards the library exit before she was stopped. One of fellow maths classmates asking for her help with the evening’s homework.

Being popular was hard.

* * *

> _ “It was then when Tachibana realized - there was no wrong way to be a woman.” _
> 
> _What’s up dear readers? This is your favorite author here with the last and final installment of Star Cross. I would like to take this chance to thank you all for your amazing support! Thank you all for your amazing support! It’s been an awesome five years with y’all and I couldn’t have done it without you - heck, without you guys, Star Crossed would’ve just rotted away in the bottom of my drawer! I never once thought that I’d receive such a positive feedback from something I originally thought of on the fly in middle school. It’s pretty cool the more I think about it!_
> 
> _Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Star Crossed as much as I loved writing it. I’ll see you again soon in my next release! Until then -_
> 
> _Ikuze!_
> 
> **_Hiroshi Go_ **

Slender fingers ran through frazzled brunette tufts as the grim-faced boy squinted at his laptop screen in the darkness of his single bedroom apartment - a grueling year of hard work finally paid off. Rubbing his tired eyes, he shut his laptop closed and slid into his bed with an exhausted sigh. He never knew how comfortable his blankets were until he was at breaking point where his muscles screamed for help. His relaxation was short lived, however, when his phone began vibrating on the lamp table to his left - that’s right. One of his classmates had asked him to tutor them in math last week.

Being popular was hard.

 

 


	2. Do You Wanna Play With a Hotshot?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter here i go

“According to the The American Academy of Pediatrics, it is recommended that a child’s backpack weigh no more than ten to twenty percent of their weight - clearly, this isn’t the case with many students as - even in this school alone - you see students dragging their backpacks down the hallways with them instead of hoisting it up on their shoulder. By replacing these heavy textbooks with online textbooks found on tablets, students can decrease the total weight of their backpacks as well as improve their physical health. Think about it - what if you could have your whole backpack at the touch of your fingertips?”

A dark aura resonated on the opposite side of the classroom as the esteemed class president pridefully returned to his spot at the podium, the lens of his glasses gleaming underneath the ceiling lights. It was over. His rebuttal basically mirrored his very existence - perfect, flawless, dumbfounding. Exactly the opposite of her shoddy argument. Her head lowered as their homeroom teacher waved his team’s blue flag high above her head - she had lost again. The students before them clapped as they returned to their seats at the front of the room, right beside the other. As if they couldn’t get any closer together already.

“Sorry about your loss again, Vice President Da,” the boy sneered, glancing downwards at the girl who was glaring at her desk, “I do applaud you in crafting a surprisingly strong argument to lead off with though,”

“Congratulations on your win again, Mister President,” the shorter girl switched her piercing gaze from her desk to her superior, “I’m afraid I’ll have to decline your compliment this time around; I don’t appreciate pity comments,”

“Suit yourself. I was just trying to be nice,” he shrugged, settling into the comfort of his chair, crossing his arms across his chest, “Geez, Yiseul, you really need to stop taking things personally. It’s not good to live like that you know,”

“As if you have the right to be telling me that, Soonyoung,” She hissed through her teeth, mentally letting out a sigh of relief as their teacher announced that class was over. She really didn’t want to be here right now, especially not next to her mortal enemy. Immediately, she took this opportunity to get up from her seat and began packing her things, “You try hiding my shadow for the next eight years,”

With a huff, she gave up trying to fit her last textbook into her overflowing backpack and decided to simply carry it. She didn’t even intend on leaving with a ‘goodbye’ before she saw her biology textbook flying out of her arms and into the air above her. When she realized who had grabbed it, she almost yelled. Soonyoung fell in step beside her, tucking his textbook under his arm, “See, if tablets replaced textbooks you wouldn’t have to try and force all of your things into your backpack,”

“Oh my God, seriously? Shut up,” She snatched her book back and picked up her pace, hoping she could lose him in the first year locker hall. If there was one thing she hated the most, it was someone who didn’t know when to drop the subject - and Soonyoung was definitely a repeat offender. Turning the corner, she slipped under a whole crowd of football jocks and called over her shoulder, “I’m already late to my tutoring session because of you,”

“Hey, hey - I’m heading to a tutoring session too! Isn’t that funny?” Soonyoung caught right back up with her, slinging his bag strap on one shoulder, “Say, Vice President, why don’t we go together? After all, it’d be great for the school image if the student council representatives were publically seen getting along together, right?”

“We’re co-workers and classmates, President Kwon,” Yiseul rolled her eyes, nudging him off to the side because he was starting to walk a bit too close for her liking, “We’re not dating,”

* * *

“There are basically no effective parents in the novel - as you can see because Mister Bennet, though a witty man who loves books, has no parenting skills whatsoever who married a pretty foolish Missus Bennet who lacks all sense of virtue,” Yiseul flipped through her already-yellowed copy of Pride and Prejudice that she’d owned since the fourth grade, “What might have been an effective element in the story, ended up being just another unresolved side issue in young adult literature where the parents are dumb and rarely ever there, allowing the children the freedom to whatever they want. For example, the cases of Kitty and Lydia, they are very silly with vacant minds - a result of poor neglectful parenting”

Beside her, a mushroom haired boy blinked in confusion, not having caught a single word that she said. Don’t blame him though - she had said all that rather quickly like it was something she had carefully rehearsed. Sighing, Yiseul forced a smile onto her face, reminding herself that if she even wanted to think about being on the council at all the next year, she had to make sure people liked her more than they liked Soonyoung. After all, he had the nicer public image of the two - being the outgoing one and all. She opened her mouth to explain to him what she just said, but she was rudely interrupted by none other than the Great One himself.

“While I do see where you’re coming from, Yiseul, I don’t think that the excellences of parenthood were what Miss Austen was trying to emphasize,” Soonyoung looked up from the student he was tutoring in math at the neighboring table, “Rather, it tries to show the need of parental attention in the upbringing of children and the consequences of what happens when attention is not given. You mentioned Kitty and Lydia, but failed to mention the contrasting characters of Elizabeth and Jane - obviously educated, well-behaved as a result of their own efforts to become morally and socially acceptable characters despite their parents’ indifference to idleness,”

Unable to counter his argument, Yiseul simply found herself narrowing her eyes at Soonyoung. However, that only seemed to boost his ego more as he wiggled his eyebrows at her, a smirk playing on his lips. She rolled her eyes at him not feeling obligated to waste her energy - he was so full of himself. In fact, he appeared to be so full of himself that it made her question herself. Literature was one of the few subjects that allowed and welcomed free interpretation, and while her answer wasn’t wrong - here she was, trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered ego.

“Honestly, I stopped paying attention half an hour ago,” Her student admitted, causing the two student officers to go all owl-eyed at his sudden confession, “I’m just really hungry - can we end this here?”

“W-wait a minute, we’re not done for another ten…” Yiseul turned towards the wall clock above the library entrance, her voice and heart sinking with every word, “It’s just ten more minutes, are you sure you can’t wait until we officially end?”

“I’m bored; I didn’t even want to do this in the first place. My teacher signed me up for this so… see you around, Vice President,” The student grabbed his bag from the handle and made a mad dash out of the library as if his life depended on it.

From the other table, Soonyoung excused his own student for the last ten minutes of their session before leaving the library without a single word like he always did. What a good life he led, being the smarter of them two as well as being the publically popular one. Everyone flocked towards him, girls and boys alike. Meanwhile, she was popular mainly with the teachers and select girls - as if that was going to get her invited to the parties of the century. Shaking her head, Yiseul laid her head on the table, rubbing her temples.

Some guys have all the luck.

* * *

 

> _Dear Kia Kuchiki,_
> 
> _I’ve heard that you’re a fan of other animanga blogs’ works. That being said, will you be reviewing NihonGo’s upcoming Late Fall release The Gentleman’s Window?_
> 
> _Sincerely,_
> 
> _Shoujo Trash_

Stationed at her snack wrapper cluttered desk, Yiseul tapped away at her keyboard, typing up a half-hearted response.

 

> _Dearest Shoujo Trash,_
> 
> _Firstly, let me tell you I had quite a laugh with your anonymous name. I know exactly how you feel. To be honest, if there’s any great trash, shoujo trash is the best trash. Secondly, to answer your next question, I really want to hurt Soonyoung right about now oh my god he’s so full of himself I’m gonna asdklfjlg_

From behind her, a chestnut haired girl breathed down her neck, startling her from what she was writing, “I swear, Yiseul, this is not the best way to channel your inner anger. This way of thinking is not healthy,”

Exiting the window she was working in, Yiseul let out a low groan as she threw herself onto her bed, mumbling something incoherent into her pillow about how even her best friend was starting to sound like Soonyoung. She thought that maybe if she distracted herself with things that she liked, she would forget about how terrible her day went because of handsome, Prince Charming type two dimensional boys. They never failed her before. Even the antagonists had a special place in her heart. But Soonyoung? She swore no amount of heart could love such a guy.

“But, Yeonhei!” Yiseul started, before she was cut off by a pillow to her face.

“No ‘but’s, Yiseul,” Yeonhei interrupted without a fear for her life, “Just because you couldn’t come up with a better argument against Soonyoung, or that he came up with a counter-opinion against your answer for your most favorite book of all time does not mean that the world is ending, okay?”

“But-”

“What did I just say?”

Yiseul slouched in her seat, lips pulling into a pout. This is exactly the opposite of what she wanted to hear. On the other hand, she was grateful Yeonhei called her out for her childish behavior because honestly she was getting worked out over the stupidest thing. She always did, especially when it came to Soonyoung. Yeonhei was right. Maybe she did need to change her way of thinking, even if just for a couple of days. With a sigh, Yiseul turned towards her laptop wondering if she should try answering Shoujo Trash’s question again. It was one she had honestly been wanting to answer for the past week now.

Yeonhei smiled; another successful mission in helping Yiseul find inner peace again. After all, it was unwritten Best Friend law that if your other half wasn’t feeling all too great, it’s your job to pick them back up onto their feet. She was surprised at how effective her job was today though when Yiseul got up and stated that she was going to head on over to Delicate Pages - the local bookstore. With eyebrows raised high, Yeonhei watched as Yiseul trudged through piles of clothes, stacks of papers and all sorts of other junk accumulating on the floor, “So you’re going to read NihonGo’s new thing after all?”

“No, I’m going to place a pre-order for the next volume of biking manga*” Yiseul slipped on a deep violet hoodie and a pair of tattered Converse, “Why would I read and review a rival blog’s manga?”

“I don’t know, I just thought that since you’d read it since NihonGo’s light novels are pretty popular with the female teenage audience these days,” Yeonhei shrugged, “And you’ve got a large female teenage following so it’d be good for attention for you and good promotion for him, don’t you think? It’s like a fifty-fifty situation,”

“As far as I can tell from his light novels, NihonGo’s blog owner is a hardcore shoujo writer,”

“And?”

“I’m not a big fan of shoujo,”

“So... you basically just lied to Shoujo Trash anon,”

* * *

_‘What am I even doing here?’_

One would have thought that with her previous statement about not liking shoujo, Yiseul would be avoiding the shoujo manga section - but here she was looking up and down the aisles to find dumb NihonGo!’s dumb manga The Gentleman’s Window. Even the name was dumb. So why in the world was she even considering buying a copy?

Well, for starters, weighing out the options led her to believe that maybe reviewing it wasn’t a bad idea. If she reviewed it and Nihongo!’s blog owner found out about it, he would end up promoting her own blog to his own audience which would only expose her to more viewers. And more viewers meant more hits. And more hits meant more money. And more money meant more of those holy ramen cups - the saviors of a broke and starving student who needs to eat on top of satisfying her Japanese pop culture needs.

Yiseul wandered down the mystery manga aisle with the latest volumes of biking and volleyball manga in one arm, and bread manga in the other. Where in the world were the shoujo romance mangas? It couldn’t be that they were all scattered in their subgenres to save space, right? Because that would be a major pain in the bum. Mumbling some softcore curses under her breath, she was about to give up and check out when, at the corner of her eye, she finally saw the romance shoujo placard. Her eyes lit up with life again, as she sprinted towards the section three aisles down, only to immediately retreat when she turned the corner.

Blinking rapidly, she shook her head a few times to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. There was something in that aisle that definitely did not belong there - or at least, she never thought in the past eight years would have belonged there. But no. It was him alright. In their exact same navy blue and grey school uniform, same ear-length regulation haircut, same lines for eyes...

‘Coolest’ Class President of the Century, Kwon Soonyoung, was reading a romance shoujo manga… the last copy of The Gentleman’s Window.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> oh diddly darn... ming's makin' a comeback


End file.
